Kinder cupcakes with mascarpone frosting

I know that muffins have nothing Italian about them, but these in particular, if Mr. Ferrero hadn’t thought of inventing Kinder chocolate bars in 1968, wouldn’t have anything special about them. Taking a look at the info I’ve found about the origin of these treats, I wonder why they chose a German name and a German boy as the image, given that it’s an Italian product. I have nothing against Germans, but the only explanation I can think of is that Ferrero or the public they were targeting found everything related to the north more attractive than things from Italy itself. Otherwise, how do you explain that they chose little Günter and not a nice Italian boy like Pierino as the brand’s image? If someone can clarify this for me, I would be very happy, because it’s one of those things that keeps me up at night and I would prefer it not to be because of the inferiority complexes of an entire nation.

Even so, I admit that I love Kinder chocolate, although theoretically I am no longer in the age range that Ferrero, an Italian brand also guilty of creating one of the most addictive comfort drugs on the planet, Nutella, targets with these products. Mr. Ferrero has caused me quite a few problems, but since mixing food with skin or intestinal problems is in poor taste, I will tell you about the example responsible for the fact that, in the photographs of these cute muffins, there is a detail as bizarre as the Carmen Miranda Style dog. I admit it, I also buy Kinder eggs from time to time and I don’t do it just for the chocolate, as most adults who buy these little eggs say, but because sometimes I’m interested in some of the collections of little figures that come inside. Obviously, the Kinder people are very clever and buying an egg during the season of one collection or another doesn’t guarantee that you’ll find one of the figurines from the catalog inside. They mix them with other absurd toys that have nothing to do with it, so that you keep buying more and more eggs, to the point of making you feel lucky when you get one from the collection, even if you already have a duplicate.

My problem is not only that I have to keep spending money, since, inexplicably, there is no one at the office with whom I can trade the “duplicates,” but that I don’t know what to do with all those figurines that don’t belong to the collection, each one uglier than the last. I feel bad throwing them away, I think, precisely because they are so hideous. It must be some kind of trauma caused by Pixar, the Steadfast Tin Soldier, or who knows what, but imagining any of those little figures, so small, inside the trash can makes me want to cry more than hearing one of Berlusconi’s jokes on International Women’s Day.

Among all the freak Kinder figurines, there is one that stands out for its bad taste. The Carmen Miranda Style dog, but just like and together with the other surprise nonsense I’ve been collecting, it rests on one of the shelves in my house that, if it continues to expand, threatens to compete with the display case altar in Alaska’s house, which would be great if I had a special fixation for extra-kitsch objects, and not out of pity and a little love for them, because in the end I’ve grown so fond of them that they almost seem pretty to me now.

Back to the muffins. For the dough, I haven’t followed their recipe, but the idea of making them with Kinder chocolate was given to me by this lady. And what about the frosting? I’m not too fond of cupcakes, but my poor blog is not to blame. If I ever have a daughter and she asks me for a Barbie or an automatic Candy Candy pencil case, if the only reason I have not to buy them is that they seem like horrible objects to me or that it doesn’t favor her feminist-intellectual development, well, damn it, I’ll buy them against my principles if it helps my daughter feel integrated among her schoolmates. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for any trauma that might lead her as an adult to become a clear case of Diogenes syndrome for sub-products, Happy Meal sub-surprises, or similar nonsense. Nowadays, it seems that every cooking blog must have at least one cupcake to its name or it becomes an outcast. So, so that it doesn’t start crying, I add the option of garnishing these muffins with extra calories of mascarpone cream. I put the Carmen Miranda style dog on top of one of them, to make it feel important for a day, after all the insults I’ve hurled at it every time I see it out of the corner of my eye. Perhaps deep down, no matter what I say, I’m not ashamed of what I have at home. I don’t look for more elven substitutes with more international prestige or named Günter for my tropical dog. On my muffins, the Carmen Miranda style dog is the king on top of the mountain and if someone doesn’t like it, they can deal with it.

Kinder Muffins with mascarpone frosting

Autor: La ragazza col mattarello

Tiempo de preparación:  15 minutos

Tiempo de cocción:  15 minutos

Tiempo total:  30 minutos

Ingredientes

• Dough:
• 280 g pastry flour
• 175 g powdered sugar
• 150 g butter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (Royal)
• 160 g milk
• 150 g butter
• 2 large eggs
• Salt
• 14 Kinder chocolate bars
• Frosting:
• 250 g mascarpone
• 90 g powdered sugar
• 8 Kinder chocolate bars

Instrucciones

1. Leave the butter out of the fridge for a while before starting to make the muffins, so it softens.
2. Heat the oven to 180 degrees, so it is already at a certain temperature when we put the muffins in.
3. Mix the sifted flour, sugar, a pinch of salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
4. In another bowl, beat the eggs, the butter cut into small pieces, and the milk.
5. Gradually add the liquid mixture into the flour and company, stirring to combine the ingredients well.
6. Add the Kinder pieces, if you don't mind that, once the muffins are baked, they will end up at the bottom of the cake.
7. Grease the muffin molds with a little butter so they don't stick.
8. Fill the molds up to two-thirds of their capacity. If you fill them completely, the dough could spill over in the oven.
9. Add the pieces of Kinder bar on top of each filled mold, if you want them to be a little more distributed in the dough.
10. Bake for 15 minutes. If you prick them with a toothpick and it still comes out dirty, leave them in for a few more minutes.
11. When they have cooled, if you want to decorate them:
12. Beat the mascarpone and sugar for 3 minutes with the whisk attachment of the hand blender.
13. Fill the piping bag with the mascarpone cream and decorate the muffins however you like.
14. Grate the remaining Kinder chocolate bars and sprinkle the shavings over the mascarpone cream.

3.2.1226